BAWK BAWK! I’ve had a few people recently asking about my chickens. They’re still there and doing quite well free ranging in my backyard. I shot a short video to give you an idea of what it’s like in my backyard 
There is nothing more comforting than baked oatmeal in the morning. Nourishing and filling. The kids will smile also!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups steel cut oats, soaked overnight.
(I’ve been using local Paul’s Grains Steel Cut Oats and let me tell you, they are out of this world!) - 3/4 cups milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 farm fresh eggs
- 2 nectarines diced
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- Drain your steel cut oats in a colander to get rid of excess water. Put them in a baking dish.
- In a small bowl, mix the eggs, milk, and honey. Stir into your oats.
- Add diced nectarines and cranberries.
- Bake at 350° for 45-60 minutes.
- Once the oatmeal is done, serve into bowls and add some cold milk.
Enjoy!
Finally! My summer plot in the community garden is starting to really blossom. Now that all of the rain has subsided, my plants are soaking in the sun and growing. The kids and I took off to the gardens early this morning. We watered and harvested!! Another batch of chamomile to dry, 2 tomatillos, 1 zuchinni, 2 padron peppers and beans! This may very well be the beginning of harvesting during the month of August and into the Fall! Nehemiah helped me water in the community plot and pick beans. Zekie did what he does best, EAT! We all had a great morning and before we left my parents home, we stole some Spanish Tortas and ate them on the walk home.
Tomatillo Plants
My Brussel Sprouts are finally growing!
Zinnia’s, Geraniums, Chamomile, Marigolds, Eggplants and Squash
The zinnia’s and chamomile really light up my garden!
Nehe helping me harvest chamomile
Zekie eating our first harvested zuchinni
Padron peppers ready for picking!!
Beautiful beans
Eggplant, Spanish Heirloom
My boys!!
Ever since visiting Rick Bayless’s restaurant La Frontera Grill, Gabe and I are hooked on this Fresh Tomatillo/Cilantro salsa. It’s unbelievable! The freshness of the tomatillos and cilantro are complemented by the bite of the white onion, garlic and jalapeno. Besides how amazing this salsa is, it’s unbelievably easy to make! All you do is mix and blend. After trying this, you’ll probably agree with me that you’ll never buy green salsa in a jar again! I can’t wait to start harvesting my own tomatillos from my garden!
Rick Bayless’s Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
Ingredients
- 4 medium (about 8 ounces total) tomatillos, husked, rinsed and quartered
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled and quartered
- jalapeno pepper to taste (I used only a small piece of a pepper. Be careful as a little bit can go a long way!)
- 1/2 to 2/3 cup (loosely packed) roughly chopped cilantro
- Salt to taste
- White onion diced to garnish
- Combine the tomatillos, garlic, chile and cilantro in a food processor or blender. Add 1/4 cup water and a generous 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process to a coarse puree; if using a blender, begin blending on low, at first pulsing to get the mixture moving evenly through the blender blades.
- Pour into a salsa dish and thin with a little more water if necessary to give the salsa an easily spoonable consistency.
- Taste and season with additional salt if you think necessary.
- Serve within an hour.
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey,
Eating her curds and whey,
In our day in age, curds and whey brings memories of a nursery rhyme rather than cultured dairy. Curds and whey are the bi-product of fermenting dairy products. In our past, it was a means of preserving dairy. Today most people buy their dairy in the forms of milk, yogurt, cream cheeses, ricotta and sour cream. We don’t really stop to think how they’re made.
What is fermentation?
Fermentation is a chemical change brought on by the action of microscopic yeast, molds and bacteria. The souring of milk, the rising of dough and the conversion of sugar to alcohol are examples of fermentaion.
I make my own homemade yogurt. Yogurt is made by heating milk to 110 degrees adding a culture of live bacteria and letting it sit out (ferment) for 12 hours. To me it was so cool to smell the milk and actually having it smell like yogurt after sitting out for such a long time. Our generation is so used to buying everything at the store without realizing that even these dairy products can be made at home.
I’ve recently started making my own lacto-fermented veggies and fruits and soaking my whole wheat flours. Whey is an excellent starter culture for this and the cream cheese, a by-product, is much healthier than the commercial variety. Since I already have so much yogurt all the time, I decided to start saving the whey for fermenting my veggies and soaking my grains. I’ve been using the cream cheese or Greek Yogurt as a yummy spread on toast and am looking forward to making my first batch of tzatziki sauce for homemade Gyros!
Below is a recipe on how to seperate the curds and whey using yogurt.
Homemade Whey & Cream Cheese/Greek Yogurt
- 1 quart of homemade yogurt or 1 large container of store bought plain yogurt
- Line a large strainer over a bowl with a clean cotton tea towel. Pour in the yogurt, cover and let stand at room temperature for several hours.
- The whey will run into the bowl and the milk solids will stay in the strainer.
- Store whey in a mason jar and the cream cheese in a covered glass container.
- Refrigerated, the cream cheese keeps for about 1 month and the whey for about 6 months
As usual Friday and Saturday’s are super busy in my household. On Friday night I finished a cake for a girl at my church. Yet another hobby of mine.
I learned how to decorate cakes this past winter. My sister had alway’s wanted to learn so I tagged along. Together we took 3 Wilton classes at our local hobby store and I actually ended up teaching myself quite a bit by digging into online tutorials. I love YouTube!! I had fun with this cake and am feeling super comfortable using fondant. I’d really like to start making some 3d figurines as they do in Europe! I Don’t know if I’ll ever have time for that though, lol!!
Saturday was filled with a baby shower, grocery shopping, and softball games. My hubby’s team may have won their league! He was pretty pumped about it.
Sunday, sweet glorious Sunday. I’ve been trying to make a point of relaxing on the Lord’s day. My 3 year old son and I had a mommy, Son-day! We had so much fun sneaking in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, gummy worms and juice boxes to watch Transformers on the big screen! The big TV as he calls it He picked the movie and fell asleep half way through. As usual after the show we ended up in my garden at my parents home. My garden is doing amazing and my beans are producing beautiful colors of purple and yellow pods. They are amazingly crunchy and sweet! I love to eat them right off the plant.
5pm rolled around and my mom and I had no dinner plans. So.. we looked at what was growing, what we had fresh from the farmers markets and made delicious fresh and healthy vegetable mixes. It doesn’t take a recipe to enjoy fresh vegetables from the garden. If you have Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Onions, Garlic and Herbs, you’re good to go!
So we made Fresh from the Garden,
Beet and Bean Salad Aliñado
Ingredients
- 5-6 beets, cut into quarters
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup EVOO
- 1 medium onion finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves finely diced
- 2 fresh sprigs of Thyme
- Dash of Oregano, Rosemary, and Tumeric
(You can use any dried or fresh herbs you may have according to your tastes!) - Handful of fresh Green Beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
- In a pot of boiling water, boil the beets for 20 – 30 minutes or until tender.
- Once the beets are tender, remove from water and dice them into smaller pieces.
- In a large bowl add the beets, balsamic vinegar, EVOO, onion, garlic, green beans, and herbs.
- Mix thoroughly and chill before serving.
Grilled Yellow Squash and Onions
Ingredients
- 1 large yellow squash
- 1 large white onion
- 1/4 cup EVOO
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Slice the yellow squash and onions
- In a bowl, add the squash, onions, EVOO, salt and pepper and mix through.
- Grill
Super easy sides of veggies fresh from the garden! How are your garden’s producing? If you have any fresh and easy veggie garden recipes, feel free to share!!
Thanks for stopping by My Humble Kitchen. I'm Diana, editor of this website. Here you'll find an encouraging community of like minded mothers, fathers, and everyone in between seeking to nourish our families with good, simple food. You'll find us in our gardens, foraging, canning, and preserving as we seek to be good stewards of our Earth and at the same time, economical.
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